Friday, July 13, 2012

Oops, finally...

Typo...

Fineally!

Two hours before I leave for my village and the internet has begun to work well enough for me to update my blog. Unfortunetly by connection is too slow for me to upload images at the moment but as soon as I have the chance I'll post images of my hut, my village, and our 4th of July party.
I successfully completed the 5 week challenge, actually staying in my village for 6 weeks. Life there is pretty relaxed for the most part. I get up every morning around 7 and eat breakfast with my host family. They are all awake by them, I'm not sure when anyone in my village sleeps, no matter how late I stay up or how early I wake up everyone is already out and about. We eat cornmeal with leaf sauce, made from Baobab leaves, at least once per day, and often have it for breakfast lunch and dinner. Lately we've been getting a bit more variety in our diet and occasionally eat rice with peanut sauce or cornmeal with beans. Ramadan starts on the 20th and I don't plan on fasting, so I'll be stocking up on things to eat during the day.
I attended a baptism in my village a few weeks ago, it was unlike any baptism I've ever attended. People from the surrounding villages came to our village and split into groups of women and men with the cheifs and old men sitting in a small group of their own. At some point a goat was sacrificed, I didn't witness this but I saw the goat being carried off to be cooked. I sat with under a thatched shad structure with the men drinking tea and eating from large bowls of rice which were brought to us periodically. One of which also contained some goat guts which were quickly snached up while a debated weather or not to try them. Everyone stayed in their groups eating talking and drinking tea until around sunset when they all went home. I never saw anything resembling a ceremony, I never even saw a baby, and I was there all day. I asked several people about this and was told its not unusual not to see the child during a baptism. I was unable to figure out why that is.
The 4th was a blast. I'm very lucky to be located in Kedougou, I didn't have to travel or find a place to stay. It was great to see everyone from my stage again, I haven't see most of them since install, and to eat potato salad and pulled pork. Unfortunetly, I ate a little too much and was nauseous for several days after.
I picked up a bag of seeds at the reigonal house today, when I get back to site I'm going to pland a live fence around my hut. People in my village are constantly maintaining their fences to keep their livestock under control and cut down the surrounding forests for posts. Live fences will not only prevent deforestation but last longer than traditional fences. If the trees used are papaya or moringa, they can be a food source as well.
I'll be at site for the next three to five weeks and I'll try to update whenever I'm back at the house. On August 21 I'll be returning to Thies for in service training. I'll be there for about 10 days and I'll (hopefully) have better internet access there and I'll be sure to post frequently.